USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Framingham > Sketches of Framingham > Part 6
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Across the square on the corner of the street, where in my boyhood was the Adam Hemenway house, and where Mr. Brooks now lives, is the blacksmith shop of Peter Coolidge and his home nearby. This name is still preserved in this location by a descendant, Miss Eliza- beth Coolidge. Peter Coolidge was the father of Mrs. Charles J. Power, who is remembered by many South Framingham people for her years of kindliness and courtesy in her home, now occupied by Mrs. John T. Butterworth. Miss Susan M. Hastings who lived for many years in her home on Franklin Street was a grand- daughter of Peter Coolidge.
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PROMINENT BUILDINGS IN THE SQUARE
The prominent buildings in the square are the Wheeler store already referred to, and the "Old Tavern" known in later days as the Central House. This hotel was built by John Houghton in 1796 and was later sold to Abner Wheeler, the third Wheeler brother, and was conducted by him as a Tavern until 1811. In the picture of the Common in 1808 it was Abner Wheeler, landlord, who is standing in the doorway. On the map of 1832 this is marked "S. Warren's Tavern" apparently then main- tained by Samuel Warren who was one of the Select- men in 1833. In that year, however, the control passed to Roswell P. Angier who was the landlord from 1833 to 1836. It was in "Angiers Tavern" where the meet- ings were held resulting in the organization in 1833, of the Framingham Bank.
Next to the hotel is the building referred to in Tem- ple's History as the "Red Building" standing where the Travis Block now stands and on this map marked "Til- ton and Wheeler Store." Homer Tilton, the senior partner, is described as a merchant. His name is also associated with Warren, apparently the Samuel Warren to whom I have referred.
We have now perambulated the Common. But it was not the Common as now laid out. As shown by the pic- ture of Framingham in 1841 chief highway travel seems to have been over the outer border of the parish and along the line close to the dwelling houses, the interior oval being a matter of later development.
Let us now accept the invitation of the genial Dr.
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Whitney to take a seat in his chaise and visit a more distant part of the town. Driving along Pleasant Street we pass on the right the shop of James Fenno, a watch maker, a house marked "B. Cloyse" and the office of William Buckminster. He is a descendant of one of the original families of Danforth Farms. He had entered Harvard in the class of 1809 but did not graduate. It is said that this class had "a row about Commons" in 1807. Whether or not he had any part in this row and if so whether it was the cause of his failure to graduate, our historian does not state. Later he had studied law with Judge Ward of Boston and was admitted to the Middle- sex Bar in 1811 and had practiced in Vassalboro for a time. He returned to Framingham in 1822. In addition to his professional work he became a publisher and editor of the Boston Cultivator, which later, in 1841, became the Massachusetts Plowman. He was the leader in forming the Middlesex South Agricultural society and was its first president.
Passing along Pleasant Street we come to the home of Levi Eaton, later the Oliver Dean, George Phipps and George P. Metcalf home, now occupied by Mr. Hemenway. This house was built by Mr. Eaton in 1817. On the left, close to the Baptist Meeting House is the home of William Buckminster to whom we have already referred. This later became the home of Charles Upham and is now occupied by Mr. Gilliam. Next on the right are two houses marked "O. Winter," a house painter who built several houses on Pleasant Street. One of these houses apparently is the home of Dr. Bigelow. On the opposite side of the street is a house marked "H. Tilton." This is Homer Tilton, the merchant, and the house is that occupied now by Mrs. Walter Adams. Next on the right we come to the home of Jonathan Maynard,
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then the patriarch of the village. He had served the town as Justice of the Peace, Selectman, Town Clerk, Representative, Senator and was the first Postmaster. He is listed in the Harvard Quinquennial as a graduate of the class of 1775. He had received the Degree of Master of Arts in 1781. He had a most unusual revolu- tionary record, having been captured by the Indians in 1778 and having escaped burning at the stake by the intervention of Joseph Brant, the Mohawk Chief, who had recognized the masonic sign of distress. In 1832 and 1833 we can picture him living in retirement in his home, his memory probably dwelling on friendships and labor of earlier years, somewhat as the more recent occupant, our beloved vice president, Frederick Horne, passed his later days.
Proceeding along this "Great Road" as it is named on this map, we pass two houses on the right; one marked "L. Buckminster" and the other "L. Buckmin- ster Jr." These are Lawson, the brother and Lawson the father of the William Buckminster already referred to. One of these houses, probably the more westerly, and the one marked "L. Buckminster Jr." was later known as the Newell place, now the home of Mrs. Alice Smith.
This is the summit of the rise, and we now pass down the hill and come to the Town "Pound," an institution found in nearly every town at the time, giving evidence of the stray cattle wont to graze at large and trespass into neighboring pastures. There is no Mill street. Next on the right is the house marked "L. Buck- minster Junior's Old House." This later became the Moses Ellis home and is now the site of the Little Tree Farms.
Then we proceed along this road, crossing Baiting Brook, passing the house marked "D. Hemenway," one
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of the old houses of the town, then the house marked "E. Freeman," the home of Ebenezer Freeman, where possibly we can see a little boy some six or seven years old who later became known throughout this vicinity as James O. Freeman, teacher of the violin, still affection- ately remembered by many. Over to the left and off the road is the house marked "E. Clayes," later the home of Samuel B. Bird and now occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Fairfield Goodale. Here was the home of Elijah Cloyes and of his father James, "a Minuteman of 1775." Then on the right are the homes of "J. Johnson," "J. Morse," and "P. Johnson," this latter being Patten Johnson the great grandfather of Miss Hattie M. Daniels, and then the District School House No. 6. Off to the right are the homes of "C. Capen" and "E. M. Capen," a family name associated for many years with this section. Next on the road is the house marked "L. Manson," the home of Loring Manson, a shoemaker whose family circle consisted of nine daughters and two sons. The youngest child, Franklin, became a leading citizen of South Framingham. I think we have in our collection a group picture of eight or nine sisters with their brother Franklin.
Then having gone over the town line into Southboro to attend the Doctors more distant patients we return by the Turnpike. Off to the right are two houses marked "J. Rugg" and "J. Rugg, Jr.," and here the Doctor points out a spreading elm tree then more than 60 years old, planted, we are told, in 1774 by the third Jonathan Rugg. Then by a straight course almost due east we drive back to the village past the house marked "J. Tem- ple," the home of Deacon John Temple and of his son the Historian Josiah H. Temple, then, as now, identi- fied by the well sweep. We proceed then in a straight
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line through the low land marked on this map as wooded and now covered by the Metropolitan Basin, and enter the village passing near the homes of Rufus Brewer, now the so-called "1812 house," the home of "Josiah Adams," now the Dr. Baldwin house, the home of Dex- ter Esty, now the Harry C. Rice house. All these men have been active in the recent organization of the Fram- ingham Bank. As we pass Church Green the Doctor tells of the enterprise of Rev. Charles Train, the minis- ter, and his people in building the new Baptist Meeting House with its beautiful spire, then as now the object of local pride.
ALONG MAIN STREET AT THE CENTRE
And now thanking Dr. Whitney for his courtesy in affording us the pleasure of this beautiful drive, we pro- ceed along Main street passing on the left the home of Peter Coolidge to whom I have already referred, "Flagg's Tavern" so marked on the right, the new "Universalist Meeting House" on the left, later Saint Bridget's Catho- lic church, a house on the left marked "W. Moulton," the home, I think, of William Moulton, of Windsor the Selectman, and come to Buckminster square as we now know it. Here, on what was later known as Colonel William S. Hastings, then the Orre Parker corner, is the home formerly of Colonel Joseph Buckminster, the son of the original Framingham Joseph, the lessee of Thomas Danforth and who first developed the Brinley, Wheeler, Bowditch, Millwood Farm area. The son, Colonel Joseph was a leading citizen from early man- hood to his death in 1780. Across the way is another
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house marked "D. Buckminster." Here Thomas Buck- minster, the son of Colonel Joseph had established his "Noted Tavern" where General Gage's spies, Captain Brown and Ensign D'Berniser had found entertain- ment on their way to and from Worcester in February, 1775, and here John Adams and Elbridge Gerry, dele- gates to the Provincial Congress, stopped on their way to the "great council fires" in 1776 and after dinner were taken by Colonel Buckminster to see the great Artillery Train, brought from Ticonderoga by Henry Knox and stopped in Framingham by order of General Washington. The name Buckminster is much in evi- dence on this map of 1832 and as we recall the promi- nence of this family from the very beginning until the death of William Buckminster in 1865, we appreciate the propriety of preserving this name as that of this Public Square.
There is no Union Avenue leading to the South; and we pass along by the Church Hill Burial ground and by the homes of Dexter and Adam Hemenway, over the River and past the Warren settlement, marked by sev- eral houses and a Tannery. Here is a store, later moved, I think, to Buckminster Square, and conducted many years by Edwin Warren. The most prominent house is the Old Mansion as now known, the early home of the Odiorne family represented later by a daughter Susan who married (1) Henry F. Shepherd and (2) Thomas F. Power, a family of social and musical prominence. There is also a house on the farther corner of Main and Walnut streets marked "Bullard House," the home of Eli Bullard, the lawyer of the earlier generation who had died in 1824. This, so I am told, was later moved to the south on Walnut Street and is now standing be- ing occupied as a double house. Going toward the
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Turnpike we come to the home of Dr. John B. Kit- tredge. He is the older physician and came here in 1791. He is represented in the picture of the "Common in 1808" on horseback riding through the Village square toward home from a professional call. In his prime, so Dr. Enos H. Bigelow has told me, he kept seven saddle horses ready for use. His home place with comfortable mansion house and stable is now occupied by Mr. Albert Smith. He had married Ellen, the daughter of the ven- erable minister Dr. David Kellogg. They could look across the valley to the father's home on Kellogg street, but our map shows no short cut across where we now have Prospect street. I have heard, however, of what has been a nearly bridle path called "Tiffany Lane" which may have made this short cut possible for the physician and his wife.
In 1803 a son of Dr. Kittredge, was practising with him, a graduate of Amherst College in 1828, who died in 1837. We can imagine, as we arrive at the Kittredge house they are leaving for a distant call, and a third horse is found so that we can go with them. As we turn out of the yard the older doctor greets pleasantly Mr. Abner Wheeler, his neighbor across the street on the place recently the home of the artist, Mr. Clarence L. Butler, now the "Abner Wheeler House." We are told in Temple's History that Abner, the third Wheeler brother, "was an enterprising man of much public spirit." His son, Abner B. Wheeler at this time had recently graduated from Harvard and was studying medicine, receiving his doctor's degree in 1834. Young Kittredge and young Wheeler must have had something in interest, at least in vacation periods, when one was home from Amherst and the other from Harvard.
But let us hasten to answer the doctor's calls. Starting
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on a trot we are soon cantering along the Turnpike. On our way we pass the house marked "Widow Sanger," the home of Nabby the widow of Joseph who died in 1830, ancestors of the family still living here.
TRIP THROUGH HASTINGSVILLE
Near the Sanger house is the house marked "A Ben- son," the home of Abel Benson, a mulatto, a revolu- tionary pensioner who died in 1843, the son of William, a slave owned by William Collins of Southborough, and a white mother, and the grandson of Nero, a slave owned by John Swift the first minister of Framingham. Here is an interesting record of three generations of a colored family in Framingham of considerable merit and no- tice. Then leaving the Turnpike we pass through Has- tingsville, the busy cross roads where Thomas Hastings and his sons soon establish a thriving wheelwright, wagon and carriage business. And then past the Rice houses on the hillside past School House No. 10 along the Old Connecticut Path. And down the hill to the factory with its boarding house on Cochituate Brook, and then on over the plains past the old Angier house, possibly the home of Gen. John Nixon and his wife Hanna following the Revolutionary War, to Turner's Tavern near the Town line.
Here we make a short stop and then turn back to the busy village at "The Falls." Major Josiah Stone, the mill owner, greets us as we stop to inquire for his health and the village news. His son, Micah, is at home, a man of equal enterprise as the father active at this time in organizing the new Bank, and already interested in the
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Academy and the Parish later generously remembered in his will. Then we ride on toward the North past other homes of the Stones, and turn West on the East Sudbury-Nobscot road, now Potter street. Here we ride through the woods past houses marked with the familiar names, Underwood, Potter, Belcher, Cutting, Winch, Brackett, on to Edmunds road and by the homes of Widow Hemenway, Widow Hallowell, Widow Ed- munds, Widow M. Trowbridge and Widow A. Trow- bridge. Pausing to rest our horses, the older doctor tells of the illness or the accident which has left these women desolate to live in this remote settlement, remembered, however, by kind neighbors and by watchful physicians.
As we pass Brackett's corner now Nobscot square, we stop and the doctor points to the North and speaks of the Greenwood place off the road to the left, referring to the then antimasonic excitement and the interest of Jonathan Greenwood in matters concerning the his- toric Middlesex lodge, telling of occasions when he as master has taken the Paul Revere charter for safety to be concealed in the hollow of an old tree. Here is an- other District school "No. 7" and nearby two houses marked "T. Nixon" and "W. Nixon," marking the ancestral homes of the Thomas Nixon family. Thomas the Colonel with long revolutionary service, Thomas of the next generation the fifer at Bunker Hill, Captain of militia, Selectman, and Warren the grandson, teacher, Selectman and the surveyor whose "drawing" remains to this day as the basis of our talk this evening. In their honor this street is Nixon Street to this day. Now we return to town by Grove Street as we call it now but only as far as the red house of Miss Foster.
There is no road leading through the low land to the South. Turning east we pass the home of Luther Belk-
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nap, then the representative of the town in the legisla- ture who also served as selectman, town clerk and now and then as moderator of town meetings. He is a sterling citizen. His father was Captain Jeremiah Belknap of the French and Indian war, who also lived here the owner of Peter Salem, the slave who by enlisting with his master's permission, gained freedom, and served with conspicuous valor from Bunker Hill through the Revolutionary war. This Belknap home is now occu- pied by Dr. Joseph Merriam. Then we pass on the left the homes of "I. Gaines," now the Bennett place and "Luther Horne," now the home of Edw. E. Clark. Then we turn to the south passing the home of Moses Edgell and ride slowly between the Meeting houses along the Common to the Turnpike and then to the Kittredge home where we bid these worthy doctors farewell.
SOUTHWESTERN SECTION OF TOWN
Stopping at the Angier Tavern for the night after our strenuous ride we are ready in the morning to trudge back through the village to visit the southwestern section of the town. We pass the house of Amasa Ken- dall, the grandfather of Wallace, Frank A., Albert and Frederic M. Kendall, and then across Baiting Brook to Winter Street, and over the river to the home of the third physician then in Framingham, Doctor Timothy Merriam. On the way we pass a house marked "N. Fiske," the home of "Nat," so named in Temple's Gene-
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alogical Notes, a Colonel in the War of 1812, the son of John Fiske. Both father and son were identified with this area called "Mellins Neck." The daughter of Nat Fiske was the wife of Peter Coolidge already referred to, the mother of Catherine F. Power, of gentle memory.
Timothy Merriam was a Concord boy, just old enough to serve in the campaigns of 1776-1778 and 1779 of the Revolutionary war. He had come to Framingham at least as early as 1791 and had acquired a large holding of land along both sides of the Hopkinton river, so- called on our map, and both sides of Winter Street, as we know it now, practically all of the area from Farm Pond to and including Pin Cushion Hill, designated on this map as "Merriam's Hill." His home marked "T. Merriam" was apparently the B. T. Manson house as known in my boyhood. His son, Captain Joseph, lives across the street approximately where the house of Mr. C. L. Dorr now stands. I have found no record of his professional training as a doctor. In Temple's his- tory, however, it is stated "he was a physician of con- siderable skill," and in Shattuck's History of Concord he is referred to with the title of "Doctor." Apparently he had no college degree. I imagine he had studied with an older doctor, possibly in his native town, and when he had served something like a term of apprenticeship had established himself as a physician. As a large owner of land he must also have been a farmer, a calling for which he had good training on the fertile plains and hillside of the ancestral lands near "Meriam's Corner," Concord. He was a brother ten years older, of my grand- father Joseph Merriam, and if he was anything like the younger brother, he was sympathetic, kindly, with a keen sense of humor, and a good measure of common sense, and these would have made him welcome at the
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bedside of the sick, whatever the limitation of his pro- fessional education might have been. What little knowl- edge has come to me as a matter of family traditions has had more to do with his fondness for fishing than his skill as a physician. As a fisherman he must also have been something of a hunter, and I can imagine him exploring the woods and brooks and ponds of this sec- tion of the town during his younger years with consider- able zest. His love for fishing continued to the end. On one of these trips he did not return, but was found drowned in a shallow brook. This was in 1835 when he was 76 years old. We find him in our imaginary walk a hale and hearty old gentleman and accept his invita- tion for a stroll through the fields and along the brooks. Possibly he has a boat on Farm Pond, then one of our most beautiful inland waters with wooded shores and clear outlet into the river. He knows the stories of this part of the town. He can tell of the early movement of the Baptists in establishing their church near the Winter Street crossing. Among his neighbors we find the Rev. Charles Train, the pastor, at one time living in the home marked "R. Train." He knows something of the history of the early families, the Badgers, the Dad- munds, the Coolidges, the Parkhursts, the Ballards and the Marshalls. He probably is familiar with the families of the south end of the town, the Eames, the Sangers, the Torreys, the Pratts, the Howes, the Havens, the Phipps, the Grouts, the Wenzells and others to whom he natural- ly would have been called in times of illness. He could tell, if inquiry were made, of the epidemic of smallpox in Framingham, having served in 1810 with Dr. Kit- tredge and Benjamin Wheeler as a committee officially appointed to deal with that plague. He has taken an active interest in the School District No. 3 of this sec-
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tion of the town where his grandchildren had their first training. Both school house and meeting house have long since disappeared, the site of both being now with- in or closely against the location of the tracks of the Boston and Albany railroad near the Winter Street bridge. He can tell you of John Park, a selectman of the town who gave his name to this part of our town. His wife, Lucy Richardson of Watertown, survived him, and is referred to on this map as "Mrs. Park." She was the mother of twelve children, one of whom, Hannah Ann, became the wife of Jason Hall, a prominent direc- tor of the bank, living near S. Whitney on the Common, and another, Sally Kellogg, became the "Madam Perry" referred to in Temple's history as living in Framingham Centre "on the north slope of Bare Hill." There is an- other widow in this neighborhood referred to on this map, as "Widow Knowlton," whose husband, Micah, we read, "was hurt in raising John Wenzell's barn and died of lock jaw July 28, 1825." Could Dr. Timothy have been the physician, who had to lose a patient by this dreadful disease before tetanus antitoxin was known?
THE SALEM END DISTRICT
And there is another section with which Dr. Timothy is familiar, the Salem End District. He knows a path through the fields and a way to cross the river by boat or through a shallow fording place and around the hill which bears his name, to his neighbors the Dadmuns and the Badgers. And then we follow the road to District School House No. 5. Nearby are three houses marked
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Fiske. "R. Fiske," "J. Fiske" and "J. Fiske's old house" indicating it would seem Richard Fiske and Josiah Fiske, the great grandfather and grandfather of our Mrs. Sarah E. White, in whose memory we held a recent meeting. These older houses are not to be confused, however, with Mrs. White's own house as her father, David Fiske, sold his father's house and built his own new residence probably after his marriage in 1841. And there is the house near the fork of the roads marked "J. Cloyes," the home of Josiah Cloyes, later the L. O. Emerson home, and now the home of Mr. C. F. Adams. Here the father of Josiah, John Cloyes, had been killed by lightning "at his own gate" June 3, 1777, as told in the "Elegy" by Lydia Larned recently read at one of our meetings. A little farther along the road is the house marked "A. Fay," but in pencil on my copy of this map "P. Parker" and then the house marked "H. Brewer," and in pencil "J. Fenton" and a third house "J. Parker" and in pencil "L. Barber." These later names will readily identify these places. The name Brewer is interesting as calling to mind the home of David Brewer known to us as the Fenton place. He was the son of the old Colonel David of Bunker Hill fame, and the father of Rufus Brewer, to whom reference has been made. The son, David, also having the title of Colonel, is represented in the picture of 1808 riding in the two wheeled chaise coming in from Salem End.
The old name "Nurse" is still preserved in the neigh- borhood. There is a house marked "L. Nurse" near the School House. This later was the Obed Daniels place. The house has disappeared, having been moved and later burned. The "L. Nurse" referred to on this map was Major Lawrence Nurse, who had recently died.
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He had been a Selectman and Captain of the old Ar- tillery Company.
The name "Mayhew" is found in this section, locating the home of John Mayhew, a shoemaker. He was the father of Abigail who married Amasa Kendall, the grandmother of the Kendall boys, already referred to.
Then there is the home nearby of George Bullard, the father of Emily and Florence Bullard, whom many of us remember, who built the machine shop on Stoney Brook, also marked on this map, and on the Gustavus Hyde map of 1850, which shows the long race way from the dam, back into the brook. All this is changed today by the Metropolitan basin.
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